DIY: What to Do if Google Play Services Keeps Stopping

Why Am I Getting the Message “Google Play Services Keeps Stopping?”

Computers and phones often speak in error codes and apps that stop working. Even minor connectivity issues can cause these problems, leaving you wondering what’s wrong with your device or displaying the “Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped working.” error message.

Software errors are another set of problems that can also cause this issue. Namely, an average phone user has at least 40 installed apps, and sometimes these apps don’t play well together. They generate problems or steal resources from each other, such as RAM, causing crashes and errors.

There’s also the issue of wrong app versions. Although each Android phone uses the Android operating system, these systems can be vastly different, and the apps built for them can be made to be phone-specific and only run on a specific phone model.

That’s also the case with Google Play Store and Google Play Services.

Why Google Play Services Keeps Stopping

The Google Play Services keeps stopping error is an infamous one, and it can appear for various reasons and even on brand new phones. However, these causes can be categorized into three groups, which are:

1. Network Issues
2. Software Errors
3. Wrong Play Services Version

Regardless of what’s causing the issue on your phone, we’ve compiled a list of ten possible solutions, and you can find those below.

Solutions to Try When Google Play Services Keeps Stopping

There are many solutions for the issue of Google Play Services that keeps stopping. We’ve listed the most famous and effective ones, and you’ll find them below in no particular order. Try them out and see whether they fix the issue.

1. Do a Factory Reset

A factory reset on any smartphone removes all your data on the phone’s internal storage and can even wipe your SD card clean if you select the option. Before you reset your phone to factory settings, ensure you’ve backed up all your essential apps and files. When you’re ready, you can do a factory reset by following these steps:

• Step 1: Go into Settingsand search for “reset.”
• Step 2: Choose Factory reset.
• Step 3: Tap the Erase all dataor Reset device at the bottom, whichever button is there.
  
  

  

• Step 4: Input your password and confirm the action.

Your phone will now restart and start the reset process. Once the factory reset completes, your phone will look brand new, and you’ll need to install all your apps again. Moreover, your Google Play Services app will likely get fixed by this, too.

2. Update Your System

As keeping your phone’s system and apps updated to the latest possible version is essential and recommended for the best performance and highest efficiency, you can try updating it to see whether it fixes your Google Play Services error. Here’s how:

• Step 1: Open the Settings
• Step 2: Head into System> System update.
• Step 3: If there’s an update available, click it and go through the process of updating your phone’s system.

Restarting your phone after an update, even if it doesn’t restart itself, is highly advisable, ensuring that the new updates apply without issues.

3. Revert to the Previous Version

As we’ve discussed the wrong Play Services versions above, it’s worth noting that sometimes even the developers can make mistakes and roll out the wrong version for your phone. So, if you notice that the phone is getting the error after you’ve updated Google Services or the Play Store, you can quickly revert to the previous version, and here’s how:

• Step 1: Head into Settings> Apps > Google Play Services.
• Step 2: Press the Disablebutton at the bottom of the screen.
• Step 3: Restart the phone, repeat the process by clicking Enablethis time, and restart the phone again.

As these are system apps, you can’t remove them from the phone, and disabling them will only remove the updates, leaving you with a base version that came with your phone out of the box.

4. Uninstall the App’s Updates and Reinstall

Like reverting to the previous version, you can also try reinstalling updates to fix the Google Play Services has stopped working error. The process is similar to the one above, but we’ve still included the steps. Here’s how you can do that:

• Step 1: Go into Settings> Apps and find Google Play Services.
• Step 2: Tap it and press Uninstall Updatesat the bottom.
  
  

  

• Step 3: Exit the Settingsapp and restart the phone.
• Step 4: Open the Play Storeapp and head into the app’s settings by clicking your profile icon. Then scroll to the bottom, and tap Settings.
• Step 5: Find and tap the Play Store versionto update your Google Play Services.

As you’re already there, you might as well update all other apps after you tap Manage apps & device. That will ensure that older and not-up-to-date apps aren’t causing the issue.

5. Check Storage

Believe it or not, one of the leading causes of the Google Play Services issue is a phone overfilled with apps. Namely, if you have insufficient storage, the Google Play Store app will likely crash and display errors such as “Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped working.”

Head into your phone’s Settings and select Storage to see how your phone’s doing storage-wise. Deleting a few apps you don’t use and transferring your photo and video library to a PC is highly advisable if your phone’s storage space lacks gigabytes.

6. Do a System Repair

Although the other solutions here are general fixes that might help, a system repair might take a bit longer but will undoubtedly fix your issue. You can use the Wondershare Dr.Fone app to repair the system and eliminate the annoying “Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped working” error.

Moreover, Dr. Fone works on Android and iOS devices and can fix various phone issues, including boot loops, a white screen of death, a stuck phone, etc. That’s why we’ve included a guide on using it for an Android phone issue. Here’s how:

• Step 1: Launch the Wondershare Dr.Fone app on your PC and head into Toolkit> System Repair > Android.
  
  

  

• Step 2: Select the type of issue you want to fix > Start.
  
  

  

• Step 3: Select the make and model of your phone so that Dr.Fone can find the appropriate Android software.
  
  

  

• Step 4: Connect the phone to the PC via a USB cable and follow the on-screen instructions to put the phone into Download Mode. The instructions are available for both phones with and without the home button.
  
  

  

• Step 5: Select the appropriate Android firmware, download it, and hit Fix Nowafter it downloads.
  
  

  

• Step 6: Enter the code and hit Confirmto continue the system repair process. When it’s done, click the Done
  
  

  

That’s all it takes to do a system repair with Wondershare Dr.Fone. Give the software a few minutes to complete, during which your phone might restart a few times. Once it’s done, your Google Play Services app will undoubtedly work.

7. Clear Cache

The easiest and the most obvious fix for many Android apps is clearing the app’s cache. Here’s how you can do that for Google Play Services and Google Play Store:

• Step 1: Go into Settings> Apps and find the Google Play Store
• Step 2: Tap Storageand hit the Clear cache
  
  

  

• Step 3: Repeat the process for the Google Play Services

If this doesn’t work, move on to another possible fix.

8. Check Date and Time Settings

Oddly enough, the Google Play Services app is prone to failure because of an incorrectly set time or date. That’s because Google’s servers constantly check these settings before issuing updates to the devices, so you’ll need to ensure they’re correct beforehand. Here’s how:

• Step 1: Head into Settings> System > Date & Time.
• Step 2: Ensure that both “Use network–provided time” and “Use network-provided time zone” are toggled on.
  
  

  

• Step 3: If this doesn’t work, you can try repeating the process and manually setting the time and the time zone.

Once you check or change these settings, try using the Google Play Store app and check whether the issue is fixed. Restarting the phone after changing the settings is also highly advisable.

9. Troubleshoot Your Internet Connection

Another regularly overlooked troublemaker is a poor internet connection. That’s because most apps nowadays are meant to work in online mode only, and losing connection or using a bad one interferes with the app’s functionality.

To test the internet connection on your Android phone, you should open a browser and head to a random internet page to see if it’s opening and whether there are any delays. If it’s working fine, your internet connection isn’t the problem.

10. Adjust Google Play Services Permissions

Although permissions rarely change, they can cause issues if you change them accidentally. These settings can be found in the same place where you would uninstall updates or clear the app’s cache, so you can use some of the steps mentioned above to check them.

Once inside Permission Settings, check whether the Google Play Services and Play Store apps have sufficient permission to do their jobs and whether any required permissions were recently removed. If so, grant these two apps their permissions back.

safe & secure

4,624,541 people have downloaded it

Conclusion

Although it’s an incredibly frustrating error, the “Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped” message is more annoying than serious. We’ve explained why it happens, but we’ve also given you a list of solutions to fix it.

Our list includes various fixes, from simple ones, like deleting the app’s cache and ensuring your network works fine, to more serious ones, like doing a factory reset. Alternatively, you can do a system repair with the help of Wondershare Dr.Fone, which will certainly fix the problem, but it might be a bit more complicated than cache deletion.